1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to servicing network access requests. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to techniques for registering communication devices, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones, to the closest feature servers to facilitate roaming while also performing load balancing for capacity, scalability, and congestion control within a communication network, such as a VoIP network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In non-traditional telecommunications systems, services are provided via a feature server provisioned to accept access from a particular set of communication devices. Currently, a fixed many-to-one correspondence exists between communication devices and feature servers from which they may obtain service as a result of hard coded provisioning of communication devices with feature server addresses. In some cases, the provisioned feature server will become inoperable due to a failure of the feature server. When such a failure occurs, the services provided to corresponding communication devices may be unavailable or severely limited. Similarly, network access to the feature server may become so congested that the quality of response from the provisioned feature server may be limited. Additionally, such an inflexible communication network architecture would necessarily increase latency in the signaling path for communication devices roaming outside of the geographic area of the feature server to which they are homed.
Hence, there exists a need in the art for advanced systems and methods for offering telecommunication services.